Help with Venice Itinerary

Rialto bridge doesn't take much time to see. Walk over it and say you did it. San Marco Church is a must see. If you will be there on a Sunday - attend morning Mass. Otherwise, stand in line and snake your way through the Church. There are a few areas of the Church that require a fee. You can look up the details on this. The Doge's palace (Palazzo Ducale) is a great site. Consider the secret itineraries tour. Or, use an audioguide. To avoid ticket lines and to use a restroom - go to Correr museum first and buy a combo. ticket. See the Correr museum, then cross St. Mark's square to Doge's Palace and go to reserved ticket entrance and cruise right in. Spend your evenings just wandering around and soaking in the views. Use tripadvisor for restaurant recommendations near your hotel. I would just focus on Venice and not bother with Murano /Burano. RS has a free audio. download for St.Mark's Church.

It will probably be relatively crowded in May, so to get the full benefit of spending the night in Venice I suggest that you get up really early (before the sunrise) and wander around Venice. It's an amazing place to watch the sun come up. It also depends on how early you get to Venice on Sunday, but if you do find yourself with some extra time I loved Burano...nice little boat trip there and much less crowded than Venice... My favorite thing to do in Venice is to just spend time wandering around and getting completely lost... a few streets off the main 'tourist' areas and it is a whole different city. I did do the gondola ride once with my 9 year old grandson...expensive, but glad we did it, and I never need to do it again:)

Spend your first evening wandering from the hotel to San Marco, with no specific agenda. Just get used to the streets, the wonder; then off to dinner wherever. If you have time and the weather is good, go back to San Marco later to hear the orchestras.

Day 1: Get up early as mentioned above: get out by 7:00AM to enjoy watching the city wake up and make your way to San Marco again. Grab some coffee and a pastry at Rosa Salva on the way. Take Rick Steves' walk from San Marco to the Rialto and on to Frari Church. Not far from Frari is Tonolo Pasticceria. Have a treat there if it's still not lunch time. Otherwise head over to Campo Santa Margherita and have lunch. Take the vaporetto down to Santa Maria della Salute then transfer across to San Giorgio Maggiore and ascend the bell tower for a fabulous view of Venice. We like to take a break in the afternoon. so I would head back to the hotel for a couple of hours. Then go back to San Marco whether by foot or boat, and see the Basilica after 3:30 when the day-trippers have thinned out. (Check hours-I think it closes at 5:00.) The Treasury upstairs is worth the price of admission.

Day 2: If you find yourself with a sunny day, head to the islands. You can do the Rick Steves' island tour of Murano, Burano and Torcello in about 6 hours, say 9:00AM-3:00PM. Alternatively, the Guggenheim, Ca'Rezzonico, and other museums may be your cup of tea. The Rick Steves' Venice guide has a few itinerary suggestions, i.e., Venice in one day, two says, etc. Good for ideas.

Be sure to buy a vaporetto pass at Hello Venezia upon arrival!

I agree with Laurel but I would skip Murano; Burano and Torcello are much more interesting, in my opinion.

No one has mentioned taking time to see the quieter areas in Venice. Wandering in Cannaregio is lovely and areas in Dorsoduro other than Campo Santa Margarita are as well. I'm currently in Venice for the fourth time and just got around to visiting Burano two days ago. It is very lovely but takes most of a day. With such a short time, I would skip it until you can stay longer.
You can get advanced tickets to the Basilicia so won't waste time standing in line.
One of my very favorite things to do while here, is 'joy ride' on the Vaporetto - just soaking in the Grand Canal. If you get to the Vaporetto before 9 am, you can hopefully get a seat in the front or back outside. Glorious.....

We recenty spent 3 nights in Venice (first visit). We arrived and checked in at 11 so were on the streets by 12- probably a bit earlier than your arrival. Basilica di San Marco is only open 2-5 on Sunday with Mass at 5:30 I believe. Unless you did want to attend Mass I would save that visit for early am.

We stayed at Hotel Ala near San Giglio and had purchased a 72 hour vaporetto pass on arrival
Day 1
Walked to Piazza San Marco- wandered around the area, had lunch.
Did the RS San Marco to Rialto walk, then the Rialto to Frari walk.
Took vaporetto a few stops to Accademia. Got off, walked around, crossed the bridge and found our way back to Hotel Ala.
Evening- before sunset-rode elevator up Campanile di Marco-fabulous views! Had dinner somewhere on a canal- I can’t recall name.

Day 2
To San Marco. You can book a skip the line pass for the Basilica for 2 Euros. I was glad we had that- even though we were there well before it opened the line was already very very long. Or you can try the bag check trick but it has to be a rather large bag otherwise you’ll wait in line. We booked a 9:50 entrance time (opens at 9:45) and walked right in ahead of all those people.
Toured Basilica then did Secret Itineraries Tour of Doges Palace- loved this- well worth it. Visited Doges Palace after the tour.
Visited S. Zaccaria then took a traghetto from S Zaccaria to Salute- that was fun but a short ride! Wandered around Dorsoduro.
Evening- Did Cichetti Tour with Alessandro- really really fun. After that we rode vaporetto for a bit on Grand Canal- but it was quite crowded and we could not get a seat so we got off somewhere and just wandered our way back to our hotel.

Day 3
Vaporetto to Rialto- visited the market- then crossed over to Cannaregio and walked thru to Fondamente Nuovo- stopped at the beautiful Gesuiti S Maria Assunta church. Took vaporetto to Burano- skipped Murano- the hordes all got off there- enjoyed Burano very much- had lunch there.
Had dinner that evening somewhere near San Marco.

We loved Venice- such a great place to wander around- we actually found it very easy and never really got lost. The only thing we did not like was the super aggressive hucksters in Piazza San Marco.

Reids Italy has several suggested itineraries for Venice
http://www.reidsitaly.com

Start the day by crossing the Rialto Bridge from east (San Marco side) to west holding a bit to the right and visit the "Campo della Pescaria" where they sell all kinds of sea food and snails and things like that for your kitchen. Even if you don't have a kitchen it is fascinating to watch :-)

After that take a Traghetto (http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/traghetto.htm) across Canale Grande (much cheaper than a regular gondola).

Some days there is a street market just after you land (on Strada Nuova), but I don't know exactly which days.

After that you can just walk north and you will find the ferry to Murano, Burano, etc. (But I agree that if you only have three days in Venice you should rather just walk at random in this - less touristy - area)

And remember to check if there is music on Piazza San Marco in the evening !

I don't know if May is warm enough for that.

I would do at least Murano (and maybe even Burano) on the day of arrival (Sunday afternoon), if you arrive early enough from Rome. The train ride is less than 4 hrs, if you leave Rome early you can make it for lunch. Check in, or at least leave your luggage at the hotel, and go to Murano first thing, then Burano if you have time. Sundays are very crowded in Venice with Italian day trippers (in addition to all other tourists), and Murano and Burano less so.
The vaporetto ride from VE to Murano is only 10 min. then from Murano to Burano it's an additional half hour.
Then you'll have the next two days to devote to Venice itself.
Vaporetto schedule till June next year is below (Murano/Burano is line 12):
http://www.actv.it/sites/default/files/ultimorario.pdf

Buy a vaporetto pass for your entire stay there, or at least for the days you go to Murano/Burano.

Thank you SO much everyone. You've given me so many good ideas & things to think about. I can't wait to see beautiful Venice!

Indeed wander and get lost. I'm not sure the exact quote from Rick's Venice page, something like 85% of the tourists only see 15% of Venice... or something like that. We wandered and got lost and loved it. Just walk, when you hit a canal make a turn. We found some nice little wine bars wandering around. I couldn't tell you what part of the island we were on.

The vaparetto pass is great. You can hop on and off the water buses. Some stations don't have ticket machines so the pass really comes in handy.

I also recomended Allesandro's tour. We did the chichetti tour with him and loved it. Great personality and stories about his beloved Venice.

The quote Robert is referring to from Rick is: "While 80 percent of Venice is, in fact, not touristy, 80 percent of the tourists never notice. Hit the back streets."

This is 100% correct. If you go to Piazza San Marco, the Rialto, the train station, and the most direct pedestrian routes connecting these, you'll find the vast majority of the tourists. If you go elsewhere, you won't.